Like a Boss

Oddly enough when I woke up this morning Card-Making was the furthest thing from my mind. In fact, I had thought my day would include scrubbing the bathtub, laundry, and other fun chores. Woohoo

My To-Do list had gone unchecked because I had spent the last two days crafting all the things. I spent the better part of Monday outside spinning, spinning, spinning. When I finally went indoors I ended up weaving on a pin loom and then weaving on the Lil' Gem floor loom.

 

 

 

Tuesday was spent knitting on a pair of socks - I turned both heels and now it's just a straight shot to the toes. Lucky me.

This week I've been able to craft all the things because The Man is on a camping/fishing trip.

 

 

When we saw The Man disappear down the driveway Zeke, Jack, Boots, and I danced our "Home Alone Happy Dance".

 

So, anyway, back to card making. In between the crafting projects I also spent a goodly amount of time (as one does) on Etsy looking at stationary and handmade cards; I especially liked the embossed cards.

So this morning while I was on the computer I entered "DIY embossed cards" and found a simple tutorial. Fortunately we have white Card Stock (110#). After cutting a sheet of paper in half, I was back at the computer to google, "how to make a torn paper edge (deckle)".

I gave it a try and it was amazingly simple and satisfying.

For the second sheet I took pics.

First I folded the paper in half lengthwise. This is where the card will fold in half.

 

Using the back of a knife I scored the length of the long edge.

 

Next I painted water on both sides of the paper along the scored line. When it looked soaked through I carefully pulled the edge off. It magically tore away on the scored line.

 

 

 

When the paper dried I cut it in half, which makes two 4.25" x 5.5" cards.

 

 

Next up, DIY Embossed Cards here's the link to the tutorial again.

I made a stencil/template which is fancy talk for cutting a square out of a greeting card. Yes, I know it sounds simple enough but I'm terrible with a sharp blade and I especially lack Xacto knife skills.

 

 

Using the window as a lightbox I traced the inside edge of the square with a big fat wooden knitting needle.

 

 Ta-da, an embossed square.

 

 

The word "stencil" tickled a memory and in the kitchen drawer I found a package of baking stencils. I put the Xacto knife back in The Man's desk drawer. phew

 

 I positioned the stencil on the front side of the card, you know, the public side.

 

 

The stencil is under the paper and you're working on the inside of the card. This time I outlined the heart with a wooden crochet hook. See the multi-crafting theme here?

 

 

Ta-da, embossed like a Boss.

 

 

Psst, I'll be doing housework tomorrow. In addition to the chores on my To-Do list I'll have to corral the craft projects scattered throughout the house. Really.

Creating Spaces

Our big flooring project turned out beautifully. The Man did an amazing job and the downstairs glows with rustic warmth.

Ceramic tile surrounds the fireplace. Laying tile was a new experience for The Man and he said, "I hope I never have to do it again." That's too bad, he does excellent work.

The upstairs bedroom, the Swatch project - my Crafting room - well, it's everything I dreamed about. I love my beautiful space.

The view looking out the window in the morning,

and in the afternoon.

Although I'm still settling into the Crafting Room and figuring out how to arrange my things (the room changes daily), I'm currently trying out my new-to-me Swatch Maker 3-in-1 loom and weaving a little mug rug to match the room's area rug. I'm excited to be using my handspun wool for warp.

Woohoo, Navajo-Churro sheep wool makes a strong warp! That bit of cobweb yarn made me nervous but my spun singles are (so far) holding up to the weft-faced weaving.

Since I was in my Crafting Room I decided to ply the yarn I had spun the day before. It's an Alpaca Blend (60% Alpaca "Relay" and 40% Corriedale wool), grown by Teresa C.

Teresa C. with her lovely luscious Alpaca and Alpaca Blends

The fiber asked to be spun Supported Long Draw so I complied and spun ~ 0.5 oz on the wee wheel, Electric Eel Wheel Nano, my "travel wheel".

Yesterday I wound off the spun single onto my hand and - tada - an Andean Plying Bracelet.

Next both ends were held together and plied (twisted) on the Electric Eel Wheel 5.2, my "plying wheel". The two singles (usually) wind off of the wrist easily and smoothly.

I'm very happy with my 2-ply yarn sample. Less than half an ounce of fiber resulted in 14+ yards of soft, squishy, lofty yarn. I'm looking forward to spinning the rest of the 9 ounce bump of fiber.

Yes, I know I am very fortunate to have a special creative space as well as a (mostly) patient Handy Man to help me create my dreams.

Swatch

swatch: (1) a sample of cloth or other material, (2) a sample, patch, or characteristic specimen of anything.

The decision was made before Thanksgiving. The downstairs carpet needed cleaning before our Holiday guests arrived. And, you know, since the cleaners were going to be here anyway they might as well clean a few areas upstairs as well. The quoted price was over $300. Big bucks.

The downstairs carpet was looking pretty shabby so instead of cleaning we opted to replace the carpet with "Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring". It looks like wood but better - scratch, stain, and waterproof, i.e. dog-proof. We got 32 boxes of "Trail Oak", nearly a full pallet. Bigger bucks.

It was going to be a big project so we decided to work on a smaller project first. Off and on for the past year I had been yammering suggesting that I needed a larger workspace. My "creativity" had grown beyond the bounds of my craft room and as my enthusiasm for hand spinning grew so did my bins of fiber supply.

The Man encouraged me to take over one of the two guest bedrooms. I grappled with the idea because I did like my overnight guests to be comfortable. In the end, I liked the idea of having a "studio" better.  I bought a Queen-sized Aerobed and The Man started work on the larger guest bedroom.

New lighting.

My new room is finished and it's a beautiful space. Right now it's housing some furniture as work gets underway downstairs. But I did manage to move a few of my things in.

Like I said, it's a beautiful space, thanks to The (Handy) Man.

 

Oh, Allium

Allium: any of a large genus (Allium) of bulbous herbs of the lily family including the onion, garlic, chive, leek, and shallot.

My garlic chives are abloom; they look like little clusters of stars.

In early spring the green onions are tipped with giant pom poms. They are delicious to look at.
 

The second week of every month the Rigid Heddle weavers meet at the Straw Bale barn in Atascadero. This month Lynn M. presented a mini-workshop on Natural Dyeing. Eleven of us arrived with our damp homework - ready-to-dye yarn and fiber - prepped in advance using the instructions and mordant ingredients (Alum and Cream of Tartar) we received from Lynn in August.

Lynn had prepared well for her presentation. Her display table included resource books, dye materials, and natural-dyed yarn samples.

We were impressed with her hand spun, hand-dyed, hand-knitted sheep to fox project. That is:
Lynn collected the wool from her own sheep,
washed and prepped the fleece into spinning fiber,
dyed the fiber,
spun the dyed fiber into yarn,
and then knitted the yarn into a soft fox.
A true wolf fox in sheep's clothing.

We were excited to dive into the dye pots as we plunged our fibers into the colorful extra large mason jars, simmering - double boiler style - on the camp stove.

Calendula (yellow), Cochineal (red), Coreopsis (orange).

Papery skins of brown onions turned the water a reddish orange color.

Oohs and ahhs as the skeins of yarn emerged from the dye pots.

The red dye of cochineal (it's a bug!) was a favorite but I thought the papery skins of Allium cepa made the most beautiful dye. It was amazing to see the transformations.

My beautiful natural-dyed yarn samples: Coreopsis, Onion Skins, Oak Galls. (Psst, not my hand spun yarn.)